Bennett was born on September 20, 1900, in
Salt Lake City, Utah to John Foster Bennett and Rosetta Elizabeth (née Wallace) Bennett. He is the brother of former U.S. Senator
Wallace F. Bennett and the uncle of another former U.S. Senator,
Bob Bennett. He attended Lowell School and later LDS High School. During his high school days he was buried alive in a landslide escaping only with a broken nose. The nose would remain crooked throughout his life and would be his trademark. Bennett studied first at the
University of Utah where he was the editor of both
The Pen and the
Utah Chronicle. It was here that he met his wife Emily Higgs Bennett who would later serve in the presidency of the LDS Young Women organization. Together they would raise 8 children. He graduated from the Business School with a B.A. in Commerce and Finance in 1925. He later studied Economics and Political Science at the
University of London. ==Career==